Group integration

You assign chapters to a group, not groups to a chapter like it is with group-file relations. There will not be any files, not even generic. When assigning chapters to a group, you given them also the language, which should be the only property added to it I guess. Chapters are treated as generic files that can be added to your mylist with the possibility to add properties to them. Properties include adding a group if there are present (can also add chapters via group), language in case the manga was released in another country, chapter states (on hdd, on optical media, deleted, on paper).

Interface

Issue/vol (in ascii art):

name
<-prev- [drop] -next->
pic info
description
groups (displaying how many chapters of this volume a group has released)
chapter list

ISBN/ISSN

The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. As manga volumes are considered books, ISBN is the unique identifier for a manga book/volume and thus, could be used as the manga version of ed2k dump. One could also use those numbers in the search field for manga. The numbers look something like this: ISBN4-87306-174-1. The example is in 10-digit format (used since 1970), however, since 1st of January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits. Identical numbers can be seen below one of the barcodes, continuing with the same example, the numbers below the barcode are 9784873061740. Note that this has 13 digits with the addition of 978, and since 2007 that number is also included in ISBN.
An ISBN consists of 4 or 5 parts:

for a 13 digit ISBN, a GS1 prefix: 978 or 979 (indicating the industry; in this case, 978 denotes book publishing). This number is not present for manga volumes published before January of 2007. This makes little difference, though, since all manga have the code 978 which means it's a book.

the group identifier, (language-sharing country group). Japan is 4. If a manga was licensed in the US and is published there, it would have 0 or 1.

the publisher code. In given example, 87306 is Angel Comics (porn).

the item number, (title of the book). In given example, 174 is Full Course by Nico Pun Nise (porn).

a checksum character or check digit. The final character of a ten digit ISBN is a check digit computed so that multiplying each digit by its position in the number (counting from the right) and taking the sum of these products modulo 11 is 0. The last digit (which is multiplied by 1) is the check digit, chosen to make the sum correct. It may need to have the value 10, which is represented as the letter X. Problem: as is the case with the example, 10-digit ISBN format check digits almost always differ from what's given under the barcode. Which values to use?

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication such as manga magazines. The ISSN system was adopted as international standard ISO 3297 in 2007. However, I can't check if those numbers are actually given for manga magazines.

External Resources

The problem with manga is that there's too much of it and there doesn't seem to exist one comprehensive Japanese database that would cover all. Apparently that's an impossible task. Fortunately there do exist sites that manage to cover certain bits and pieces.

http://zippedmartin.dyndns.org/pretext/index - rar's page consisting of what he managed to crawl from now defunct s-book. S-book was a site of six publishers banding together for one retail site, but they have since unbanded and s-book now offers other services. Yes, it's password protected, it's for only people involved anyway.

http://manga-db.fms.co.jp/bgmag/maglist.aspx - a something of an "official" database as the project as there was money involved in creating it plus the Contemporary Manga Library, Kawasaki City Museum、and the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics oversaw the development. The database is split into two parts: "The Era of Post-War Shōnen and Shōjo Magazines and Monthly Magazines" covers 24,841 volumes of 619 magazines with about 200,000 works from 1945 to 1962, while "The Era of Shōnen and Seinen Magazines and Weekly Magazines" covers 5,488 volumes of 602 magazines with about 173,452 issues from 1955 to 2007. For example, the first section lists 1908-1955's Shōjo no Tomo text and manga magazine. The second section lists last year's defunct Comic Gumbo magazine and 1,200 manga titles and features that have appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. (The 1,200 listings only represent part of Shonen Jump's manga and features — more are being added to the database.) There are different levels of access to the data, ranging from no-charge browsing to an annual 6,000-yen (about US$60) "Course C" fee for individual subscribers and an annual 380,000 yen (about US$3,800) "Course A" fee from complete access. (Academic institutions and public libraries have discounted fees.) Browsers can look up a magazine's company, publishing dates, volume count, manga titles, and authors in the database's second half without charge. Paid subscribers can access information about individual issues, editorial staff, price, and details about color inserts. Paid subscribers can also search by keyword. (via ANN)

http://www.tails-room.com/Ribon/mokuji.html - apparently some crazy fan managed to list every issue (dates, content and mangaka) of Ribon, Ribon Original and Ribon special issues since 1993 (Ribon is a shoujo magazine). Ribon has been published since 1955, but you can only ask so much of the crazy fans.

Placeholder for my issues

Vessel type of entity is listed after Organisation. Should be listed after Mecha.

On Cast overview, if a seiyuu also voiced a secondary/appears in character aside from main character. It gets counted as secondary/appears in and is ordered accordingly on the cast overview box. Should order only based on the main character.

There still needs to be a separator between the main characters and secondary cast on cast overview.

Ability to switch the picture and main info section positions. Currently picture on the left and the info section and cast/staff overview on right, some people would like it vice versa.